If you need to learn how to make royal blue icing, one tip that you can use is to use powdered food coloring to get the dark color base. Watch how I get to the color that I’m going for using both powder and gel food coloring to avoid diluting the buttercream texture.
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What color of royal blue do you want?
Royal blue is a color that’s often pretty bright, but it doesn’t have to be, so make sure you and the client (if you’re making the cake for someone else) are thinking of the same thing. This is really important because if a customer has a shade in mind and you make a different one, they won’t be happy. I use a paint color fan deck to find the colors that I want to end up with, but for royal blue you need a darker base so that your end color will be dark without watering down the icing.
The easiest thing would be to get some powdered food coloring that won’t thin the icing out to get started. If you can’t find a royal blue color specifically, get a basic blue. I also used Americolor royal blue to change the tint after I created the dark colored base icing.
You can get Americolor food coloring at Oasis Supply Company or Amazon. On Oasis Supply, you can use discount code REMEMBER10 to get a discount on your order!
What colors to use to make royal blue icing.
I started with powdered food coloring in Royal Blue, which was darker than I expected, so you could use Navy blue or regular blue to start. You’re going to tint it with the gel later to brighten it up.
Stir the powdered food coloring in thoroughly!
Stir all of the color in well, making sure to scrape the bowl and the spatula to get all of the food coloring off and mixed in. This is going to give you a basic darker blue color.
Add more powdered food coloring to get the base as dark as you can without making it beyond the shade of royal blue that you want. Keep it dark but not so dark that you won’t be able to make it a little brighter.
Compare the color to the paint swatch you’re going for. In this case it was pretty close to the color I wanted anyway, but I wanted to brighten it up a little.
To see how to mix teal icing, click here.
Brighten up the color with gel food coloring.
I added Americolor Royal Blue to brighten the icing.
Shop for Americolor Royal Blue at Oasis Supply (use discount code REMEMBER10 for a discount)
I just added a little bit to start to see what kind of a difference it would make.
I added a little more to brighten it up a little bit more.
The final royal blue icing color.
This was pretty close to the paint swatch, and I didn’t think that adding more gel color would make a huge difference, so I decided to stop there. This was close to the paint swatches that I was using as a guideline.
The royal blue food coloring was still brighter on the label, but if I wanted to use this on a cake I would be fine with it.
For an article about blue food coloring in different shades with comparing different brands, click here.
This is the end result, the difference is very subtle and I could see it, but it’s not super obvious in the photos. The top is the final color, which was a little brighter than the version with only the powdered food coloring. If someone asked for royal blue on a cake, I’d be comfortable with using this color. You might also want to mix it ahead of time and let it sit overnight, because it will probably get darker.
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